Friday, May 22, 2009

Diving with Rajan, the Swimming Elephant

What an amazing story!

When I told my friends I was going to travel twelve-and-one-half time zones away, to India and the Andaman Islands to film an elephant swimming, they all responded, “Elephants swim?” This one does.


Rajan is a fifty-six year-old Asian bull elephant, a real tusker. He was brought to the Andaman Islands to work in the logging industry more years ago than anyone can remember. By day, Rajan was a beast of burden, laboring in the forest, moving logs as the mahout (elephant handler) directed. With the heat of the day and trunk-breaking work behind him, Rajan lumbered into the cool ocean with his mate of twenty years. It was she who taught him to swim. Sadly, no one remembers much about her.

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